"Words that make actions speak louder."
A coalition of conservative New Democrats, whose leader is being investigated by a Congressional ethics committee over Wall Street fundraising, has officially come out in favor of gutting financial reform. The issue they’ve targeted: derivatives, the most closely watched effort of the bank overhaul. Good luck in November, guys. New Democrats like to say they […]
The tough derivatives overhaul proposed by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., has emerged as the key fight in Wall Street reform. That status is well-deserved. Despite Lincoln’s record as a stooge for corporate executives, she is pushing what is by far the most significant threat to the Wall Street bonus machine currently on the table. But […]
As the House and Senate publicly iron out their differences on Wall Street reform during conference committee, the most important aspect of the overhaul is gaining strength behind the scenes. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., is standing firm on her tough derivatives bill, and continues to garner unlikely allies from within the Federal Reserve as the […]
5:15 It is generally bad news that Barney Frank is backing this effort to gut the Franken amendment. That’s the only serious reform effort on the table today, and for Frank to be coming out against it implies that he’s much more willing to do Wall Street’s dirty work in the conference committee than his […]
Conference Committee negotiations on Wall Street reform begin today, with several key battles still unresolved. Thanks to intense progressive pressure, those negotiations are going to be televised live. You can watch the sessions on the web right here, using a stream provided by the Sunlight Foundation. Stay tuned to see if negotiators tip their hand […]
8:40 Terrific question from Mary Bottari. Everyone says they believe in higher capital requirements– even bankers– but so far, all of the negotiations regarding new capital requirements are leading to very small adjustments, rather than significant changes. The higher a bank’s capital requirements, the less it can gamble with borrowed money, and the greater it’s […]
It’s an interesting time to be a progressive in the United States. In many ways, the election of President Barack Obama represented a logical, if improbable, end to the era of phony Reaganomics and demonization politics. But the Obama presidency has been a serious test for the progressive movement. The leaders in Washington who were […]
Buffett is already defending Moody’s with statements that appear to be reasonable, but are in fact completely incoherent. Here’s what he says about the top brass at bailed out banks: “When society has to step in to save institutions . . . the CEO should go away broke.” So far, so good. But what about […]
Today’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearing on credit rating agencies promises to shed quite a bit of light on one of the most profitable and corrupt businesses in Corporate America. Rating agencies score huge profits regardless of how accurate their ratings prove, and thus never felt any serious pain from the financial crisis, despite the […]
It’s been apparent for several weeks that the largest U.S. banking behemoths will remain as big and dangerous as they are today once President Barack Obama signs off on the Wall Street reform bill. But individual oversized banks are not the only problem Big Finance poses to the economy—the overall sector is much too large, […]